Matt Pocock's Skill Mapidea → production

@mingrath

Every skill, in the order you actually run it — from empty repo to shipped feature.

Matt Pocock's Skill Map animated diagramTop-down architecture diagram; dashed connectors animate in the direction of flow and glowing dots ride the main paths.0 · Precondition — run once per repo1 · Where work comes from — the on-ramps2 · Sharpen the idea — thinking, not code3 · Make it buildable — plan becomes tickets4 · Build it — one ticket at a time5 · Productiononce configuredcited findingsa deepening opportunity is an ideano seam to lock it downalready agent-ready — do not re-grillwindow full, or branching offfresh sessioncarry the answer backmulti-session buildfog cleared — hand off, do not buildblockers first, one at a timedriven internallygreen, now review the diff/setup-matt-pocock-skillsWires up issue tracker, triage labels, doc layout/triageRaw bug reports and requests → agent-ready issues/diagnosing-bugsHard bugs: build a red feedback loop before theorising/improve-codebase-architectureSurvey for deepening opportunities — spare-time upkeep/researchBackground agent reads primary sources, leaves cited notes/grill-with-docsRelentless interview. Stateful: writes CONTEXT.md + ADRs/wayfinderFog too thick to hold? Map decision tickets, resolve one by one/handoffCompacts the thread to a file so a fresh session can pick it up/prototypeThrowaway code answering ONE design question. Keep the answer, delete the code/domain-modelingVocabulary layer: kill fuzzy terms, record ADRs/to-specCollapses the whole thread into one buildable spec/to-ticketsSplits the spec into tracer-bullet tickets with blocking edges/implementOne ticket, one fresh context window/tddRed → green, one slice at a time, at pre-agreed seams/codebase-designVocabulary layer: depth, seams, adapters, module shape/code-reviewTwo axes in parallel: Standards + Spec, before the commitCommit → merge→ productionThen loop: next ticket, cleared contextcloud infraexternalfrontendmessage busdataservicesecurityrequest in flightvocabulary layer — runs underneath the others

Context hygiene

  • • Grill → spec → tickets: one unbroken window
  • • Never /compact before /to-tickets
  • • Fresh context for each /implement
  • • Smart zone ends around 120k tokens

Pick your entry point

  • • Codebase exists → /grill-with-docs
  • • No codebase → /grill-me
  • • Too foggy to hold → /wayfinder
  • • Incoming bug → /triage or /diagnosing-bugs

Running it AFK

  • • /loop → one ticket per pass
  • • Blockers-first, from ticket edges
  • • /code-review gates every commit
  • • There is no /goal skill

Keep steps 2 and 3 in ONE context window. Clear context between every /implement.